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By Scott Nygaard
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Put on your cowboy boots and start playing some classic country licks
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| Mitch Polzak, Photographed by Anne Hamersky
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Practice Plan
Level:
Learn each of these licks one at a time—don’t feel that you have to learn them all before you can start some serious twangin’. Don’t worry about the exact phrasing or note values too much; these licks are all easily modified. As long as they fit into the measures allotted to each chord in the song you’re playing, they’ll sound just fine. If you’re not used to slurs—slides, bends, hammer-ons, and pull-offs—this lesson may be a little tough, so spend some extra time working on your slurs with our “Hammer-Ons, Slides, and Pull-Offs” lesson.
Tip: Many of these licks can be moved around the neck to different keys, much like you would a capo. For example, move the G licks up two frets to play in A, and the D lick up two frets to play over an E chord.
Play It: “Swinging Doors” (page 50, Winter 2006).
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Introduction and Tune Up
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To many people, country music may still inspire thoughts of truck drivers, CB radios, bad mullets, and corny songs sung by razor-voiced stardust cowboys, but country has long conjured its own kind of cool. After all, the Beatles covered Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally” way back in 1965, and country’s broad umbrella has come to include everything from the political acoustic sass of the Dixie Chicks to the hipster twang of Ryan Adams. And has there ever been anyone cooler than Johnny Cash?
If you’ve been bitten by the country bug, you may want to start learning to pick a few lead licks to play as intros or between verses of your favorite songs. A Fender Telecaster (with the pickup selector in the bridge position) soaked in tremolo or a little slap-back echo effect is the classic twang tone, but you can do your country pickin’ on any kind of six-string. In this lesson, we’ll walk you through a few classic intros in the keys of E and A and some of the most well-used licks in country music, licks you can use whenever you see a G, C, or D chord.
Boot-Kickin’ Kickoffs
One of the most distinctive country guitar riffs is the intro to Cash’s signature song, “Folsom Prison Blues,” similar to CASH’S COUNTRY INTRO, below. Use your middle finger to fret the second fret of the fifth (A) string and your index finger on the first fret of the fourth (D) string. At the end of the second measure, reach your ring finger down to the third fret of the low E string, pick the note, then bend it by pulling the string downward, along the fretboard, just a bit before releasing it and finishing with the open sixth string. This kind of quick bluesy bend gets used a lot in country.
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Cash's Country Intro
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Cash's Country Intro, Played Slowly
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BASS-STRING BOOGIE is another good twangy lick to use at the beginning of a song or solo, this time in the key of A. Start with a slide on the low E string from the third to the fifth fret (the G to the A note), followed by the open fifth (A) string. This idea—sliding into a fretted note, then playing the same note on an open string—can be found in lots of country and bluegrass solos (and also in rock songs like “Johnny B. Goode”). You can slide with any finger, but your ring finger is usually the strongest and will give you a solid slide note. The bend at the end of the second bar is like the one in the last example; give the string a little push upward this time before playing the open A that starts the next bar.
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Bass-String Boogie
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Bass-String Boogie, Played Slowly
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